WWW goes global with Arabic urls

Web addresses will now be available in Arabic in a move being billed as a ‘milestone in Internet history’

In a move that is being billed as a historic achievement for one of the world’s leading languages, web addresses will now be available in Arabic as part of a wider move to open up cyberspace to domain names in multiple, non-Latin scripts.

Egypt said it has begun registering names under the .misr domain. “Misr” is the Arabic name for Egypt. The first three companies to use it are TE Data, Vodafone Data and Link Registrar, said the country’s communications minister, Tarek Kamel, hailing “a milestone in internet history”.

Instead of using the old .eg domain name, organisations in Egypt can use .”misr”, written from right to left in Arabic script as the default country code for domestic websites. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also introducing the new codes, respectively “.Al-Saudiah” and “.Emarat”.